Throughout history shamans, clerics and physicians have tried to pin down what goes awry when a person slips into sadness, insanity or psychosis. Theorists have variously blamed mental illness on an imbalance of bodily fluids, the movement of planets, unconscious mental conflict and unfortunate life experiences. Today many researchers believe that psychiatric disorders arise in large part from a person’s genetic makeup. Genes, after all, are the blueprints for the proteins that create and control the brain.
And yet genetics cannot be the whole story: identical twins, who have virtually the same DNA, do not always develop the same mental disorders. For example, if one identical twin acquires schizophrenia, the other stands just a 50 percent chance of also suffering from the disease. Indeed, abundant data suggest that psychiatric ailments typically result from a complex interplay between the environment and a number of different genes [see “The Character Code,” by Turhan Canli; Scientific American Mind, February/March 2008]. But only recently have scientists begun to grasp how the environment affects the brain to produce psychological changes.
This article was originally published with the title The New Genetics of Mental Illness.
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Add CommentNew Genetics of Mental Illness is of particular interest to me, personally. The fact that life experiences can change the chemical coating of the DNA; alters gene expression, shut down or revive up the construction of proteins will affect a person's mental state.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI experienced serious post-traumatic stress as a 12 year old in 1953, but the syndrome was not recognized at that time.
I still have effects from those early years. Is there a study in progress, or in the future to work with persons who have lived with PTSS for most of their life?
Sincerely,
JG
I think that most readers would do better to first read college level text books on abnormal psychology and biological psychology (so-called brain science) to get a better grounding in methods of research, physical evidence, and the like.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Researchers believe" is not very informative as to why anyone ought to believe the claims that follow.
"Mental illness" is a very broadly defined term; even schizophrenia is a broadly defined term with a variety of sub-categories. You can look it up yourself in DSM-IV if you like.
The authors of the DSM at one time considered homosexuality a psychiatric disorder; that is no longer the case. In all probability, both the inclusion and exclusion of homosexuality were completely arbitrary.
The magazine may be quite interesting, but it is not the place to get a well-rounded education.